CAMARILLO : Sewage Rates Raised to Upgrade Plant

The Camarillo City Council voted Wednesday to raise sewage rates by about 8% for 12,500 households and 700 businesses in eastern Camarillo beginning in January.

The council voted unanimously to increase rates for improving a sewage-treatment plant but decided to postpone a decision on whether to raise rates an additional 7% for hedging against a possible decline in developer fees.

Thomas Goins, maintenance director for the Pleasant Valley School District, asked the council not to increase rates by the initially proposed 15% because it would add thousands of dollars each year to the district’s sewage bill.

Starting in January, rates will increase from $15 to $16.25 for single-family homeowners, from $9.10 to $9.85 for senior citizen homeowners, from $7.85 to $8.85 for apartment dwellers and $9.75 to $10.75 for mobile-home residents.

Monthly rates for businesses and institutions, such as schools, would range from 8 to 34 cents per square foot of floor area.

The higher rates are expected to generate $220,000 in additional revenues each year, officials said.

City Manager J. William Little said the sanitary district needs the money to help pay for $15 million in improvements to the sewage-treatment plant on Howard Road near Calleguas Creek.

The project, expected to begin in February and be completed by the summer of 1995, willallow the plant to treat more sewage and upgrade its treatment methods.

“It’s getting to a point where the flows are starting to exceed the capacity,” Little said. “We are also having a difficult time in meeting the water-quality standards of the day.”

Based on growth projections, the plant, which now handles five million gallons of sewage daily, will need to accept at least six million gallons by the year 2000, Little said.